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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Bob Lobel: My Theory on "Deflategate"

What is the truth? What really happened? Will we ever get past this stage of guessing and accusing?

Accusing has become close to being the national pastime. It's almost impossible to stay away from the speculation and not have an opinion on this story that is, literally, full of hot air. Well, maybe that's the issue… More like not quite full enough of hot air.

I have a theory, and if you don’t want to hear it, stop reading. 1. I believe Belichick when he acts like Sergeant Shultz saying, “I know nothing."

2. No doubt, other than warming up with their chosen 12 balls, Brady did not do the deed, but…

3. When you are faced with what looks like a complicated and difficult problem to sort out, always take the simplest solution. Here is what I think happened in its simplest form:

Brady picked the 12 balls he wanted. It was a wet and miserable day, and a big game, to say the least. So, Brady tells his ball boy assistant to “just take these down a little”.

So what happens? The kid takes 11 of the 12 balls down a little TOO much. A very little mistake was all that was needed to get below the 12-and-a-half league mandated PSI in each ball. 11 out of 12.

That was a willful act but, it was not a skillful one.

A little mistake that could not be corrected without admitting the balls were altered. A dilemma of biblical proportions.

Just hope that no one would even think to check.

Well, it just unraveled from there. That’s my story and I'm sticking to it. In retrospect, Brady shouldn't have asked (if he did) to take the balls down a little. But, it probably wasn’t the first time he made that request.